Broken People in A Broken World
by Lima Bean Nightmare
Summary: Peter Parker is only 15 when the world decides to try and break him. He doesn't get a break until he's 20 and he meets Wade. Maybe the world wasn't trying to break them, or maybe the world was only giving two broken people a break.


Peter Parker is only 7 when the Stark-Rogers family take him in, they live in a fancy big building with a bunch of awesome people, and Peter thinks that this is the best thing to ever happen to him. He finally feels like someone wants him around and no one ever fights around him, everyone makes him his food just how he likes it. He doesn't think things could get any better.

It's only when Peter Parker turns 15 that he learns the world is a cruel place that only wants to break, that is the year he loses the best man in the world, Ben. Uncle Ben was the best man to ever live because he would make it clear that you should never fight a battle that you know you can't win, that's why he and Aunt May didn't take him in after his parents fled for who knows where, they weren't equiped to take care of him. Being a part was better than having the boy forcefully ripped from his life, they knew that the Stark-Roger family could care for him better than the Parkers.

He is out with Peter one night, lecturing the boy about acting like a decent human to his aunt, age is not an excuse and his situation definitely isn't, Peter listens to him with his head hung low, ashamed of how he acted. That is the first time Peter see's a dead body but it's not the last, it's also not the last time that someone close to him bleeds out right in front of him. That is the night Uncle Ben is shot and nothing will ever be the same, because after 15 long years, the illusion of innocence is lifting from the world.

"I'm Gwen Stacy."

"Peter Parker."

It's a romance that's doomed to fail.

"Hey... you wanna go on a date?"

"Yes, I thought you'd never ask."

They went for coffee and saw a movie. Peter thinks she's the most beautiful thing to walk this sad earth. Gwen thinks he's the kindest man to ever live. It's perfect and innocent and new.

"I love you, Gwen."

"I love you too, Peter."

Peter and Gwen made love on the eve of their 7 month anniversary.

Harry slowly descends into madness out of the eyes of his very best friends.

Harry and Gwen die on the same night, ruled a murder-suicide. Peter watches it all, tied to a chair and wishing for everything to stop. He's only 16, almost 17, this shouldn't be happening to him, this brings the body count up to 3.

He meets Mary Jane at a party, and everything about their relationship is a blur of alcohol and sex, she doesn't die. Only disappears, and it feels like she took a chunk of Peter with her.

"I'll always love you, even when I'm gone," a letter reads, months later. "But you're still good, I couldn't stay."

It finishes with a beautiful signature saying Mary Jane, and a small sticker that says love from Cali. California seemed like the perfect place for someone like Mary Jane, the redheaded firecracker.

He gives himself one night of weakness. He crawls in bed with his dad's and cries for the whole night, neither Tony or Steve asks what's going on, they just let the boy cry. He's only 17, and Tony and Steve think the world is trying to hard to break him young. Peter is fine in the morning, and no one bothers to mention it again.

Tony and Steve divorce the same year.

"You never think of me!"

"I'm sorry I work so hard to provide for this stupid family!"

They never ask how Peter is doing.

He can't wait to be in college and away from this.

"Fuck you, and your son."

Peter and Tony never see Steve again, though they hear he's moved to Brooklyn with an old flame. He and Tony legally change their names back to Stark.

Peter silently thinks that the world succeeded in breaking him.

He opts for a college close to home, so he can still hang out with his dad and see Aunt May regularly. Everyone thinks it's great that he can still do what he loves so close to home, and everyone seems happy. Tony goes on a date with an old friend, and they soon start going steady.

Life is going good again.

It does all the way until Peter is 20, then Aunt May dies and his world is shattering all over again. His dad lets him move back. He drops out and buys a building with the money his dad had saved up for him since he was 7. Opens up a coffee shop that hits it off pretty well and everyone is happy.

As happy as Peter can be anyway. He's been on at least 4 different prescriptions since he was 15, one for depression, one for anxiety, later one for PTSD, and then there's the one for ADHD. He stops taking them when he's 21, and then he tries to kill himself.

He doesn't succeed, thank whatever God there may be.

A regular in the coffee shop starts flirting with him, he's heavily scarred and he has stunning blue eyes. Peter is immediately infatuated.

He hires two new helping hands, a laid back dude named Johnny, who looks just like Steve but younger and freer, and a tired man named Bruce. Johnny needs an extra job to support himself and his recently fired girlfriend, and Bruce needs something calm, something that's not a lab. It works our well.

He finds out that firty regulars name is Wade, and after 3 months of awkward flirting exchange numbers. Peter hopes that this doesn't end with anyone dead. Wade hopes he doesn't run off this pretty doe eyed boy.

"Let's take this slow."

"I can do slow."

"Let's start as friends."

It's the happiest Peter's been in years, and he tells Tony and Rhodey all about his cool, new friend.

"I didn't know you liked boys."

It's not a question, but it demands an explanation.

"Well, you know, after every girl in your life either dies or leaves, you start to think, maybe I need a guy in my life."

No one laughs, Peter doesn't even smile.

It's a lie and everyone knows.

"As long as your happy, son."

"I love you, dad."

"Love you too."

Right before closing one day, Steve wanders into Peter's little coffee shop, looks him right in the eye and orders a drink.

"I didn't mean it, when I said fuck you guys."

It's deadly quiet, and Johnny watches closely.

"I'm sure you also didn't mean it when you said that you loved us."

"I'm trying to say sorry, son."

"I'm trying to say you can take your apology and shove it up your ass."

"Please."

"You have no right to call me son, and you have no right to come into my life again!"

Johnny walks up to Peter and Steve.

"You need to leave."

"I'm a customer."

"The shop closed five minutes ago."

Peter makes sure that Steve is never allowed in his shop again. They don't see the blonde man again.

"How old are you, Peter? Because you look like you're 16."

"Fuck you, Wade."

"Seriously though, I just wanna know how old you are."

"I'm 23."

Everything is going great, everything is going smooth.

"Let's get drunk."

It's the anniversary of Gwen and Harry's death. Peter doesn't want to think.

"Is it appropriate to tell you about my depressing back story yet?"

"You can tell me anything Peter."

And so he does, Peter tells him everything.

"So, my parents are dead, died shortly after I turned 10, I know this because my Uncle thought I should know, I didn't know them well enough though."

"Mine died in a fire."

"My Uncle died in front of me when I was 15, watched him bleed out and I couldn't do a thing, it was my fault because I was the sole reason we were out."

Wade is quiet.

"The next year, my first girlfriend got killed by my best friend, also right in front of me, then he killed himself, my second girlfriend ran away to California and told me in a letter, the same year, my dad and Steve divorced."

"Dead first girlfriends club, members two."

"What?"

"My first girlfriend died too, cancer."

They hold each other, and they cry until their eyes swell.

Two months later, they're dating.

"I love you, Peter Parker."

"I love you, Wade Wilson."

Their first kiss was explosive.

"You are my sun."

"And you are my moon."

Peter didn't want this to end.

"Please don't die."

Peter couldn't let this end.

"Dad, this is Wade, my boyfriend."

Peter would die if this ended, there wasn't enough medication to stop it.

"Marry me, Peter Parker!"

How could this ever end?

"I do."

"I do."

"I love you, Peter Wilson."

"I love you too, Wade Wilson."

Wade didn't die in some traumatic way.

Peter didn't kill himself.

Tony and Rhodey lived a long, happy life before dying of old age, only months apart.

Wade and Peter named their cat after Tony.

But, Wade didn't die, and that's all that mattered to Peter, because, it hurt to lose his dad, but he had died a happy man, and Wade was too young to die yet.

"We're old now."

"I still love you."

"I know, and I still love you."

Peter thinks this is what being crazy feels like.

He doesn't mind.

He goes to sleep, at 75, and he doesn't wake up.

Wade dies the same night, peacefully in his sleep.

Maybe the world wasn't trying to break them, or maybe the world was only giving two broken people a break.


End file.
